A divine whim

Christians around the world are preparing to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection. As followers of Christ, these same Christians are called to live this Paschal Mystery in their own lives by dying to an old way of life and rising to a newness of life.
One local individual came down to Evangeline Parish as part of him living out his own Paschal Mystery. He died to his old way of life of being an out-of-work actor and rose to a newness of his life by being the youth pastor of First Baptist Church in Pine Prairie.
For Andy Noel; though, his Paschal Mystery has come full circle after five years of serving his Church. Today, March 18, is his last day as he looks to pursue other opportunities in the Baptist faith.
“I’m looking at other ministry opportunities,” he expressed. “I love my job. I love this church, and I love my kids. But, it’s just time. There’s a little tug for something else. I don’t know where, and I don’t know when. But, it’s time. God’s always had something prepared for me. It’s never exactly what I expect, but I’m excited for that.”
Noel’s journey here to Pine Prairie began while still living in Washington, N.J., which is near the Pennsylvania border. “I moved out when I was about 20-years-old and out of college,” he said. “I was working at Sight and Sound as an actor. It was the best job ever; however, it didn’t go the way I wanted because I was laid off that year. Driving back from an audition in Florida, I got a call about an All About Kids summer internship program. I was offered a position there, but I turned it down. I was bent against working with kids for any summer internship where I would go to Louisiana. That was not on my things to do.”
This opportunity came around again for Noel, and he saw it as God’s call for him. As he said, “After I turned down the internship, I then requested that they hire me. They actually filled that spot, but, two days later, it didn’t work out. They called me back in and hired me.”
“That was the summer of 2010,” Noel continued. “My boss Dale Morgan is originally from the Crowley area. One lucky group of four kids got sent down to Louisiana, and I was part of that lucky group.”
Noel explained what the internship at All About Kids entailed. “The camp was a one-week theater camp all about acting, singing, and dancing,” he stated. “Basically, we get the kids for five days. We taught them all this choreography, these songs, and these skits, and then they put on the show Friday night for their community.”
He described the differences between Baptists in New Jersey and Southern Baptists. “The Baptist faith up there had a bad name for a little bit,” Noel stated. “There was leadership management material that kind of got off the path and just gave the Baptists a bad name up there. So much so, that my church actually dropped the denomination in New Jersey and became non-denominational.”
“Now, the core is still basically the same,” he continued. “We believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit which is the three in one. We follow Him as closely as we can scripturally. But, the Baptists down here know how to cook. That’s the big difference.”
This big difference within the Baptist faith led Noel to fall in love with the good food and the good people in Pine Prairie. Because of this, he decided to stick around. What really attracted him to the area was the community especially “the family relationships and the church itself.” He added, “They welcomed me whole-heartedly. The kind of atmosphere that they brought and that they would welcome a Yankee into their ranks just blew my mind.”
The fact that Noel decided to make a stay of it in Pine Prairie created a few problems for him in that he did not have a job or a place to live. “Thankfully, John Schexnayder allowed me to stay with him for a few months until I got on my feet,” he said. “The church was always helping me out in evert little way. Mike Fontenot, who is now the lead pastor at First Baptist in Basile, was the youth leader here at the time. He took me under his wing and got me associated with the kids and how things work.”
Noel continued, “He just raised me up for that position. He already knew that he was moving on and that God would send someone else. Nobody from New Jersey comes down on a whim. Yea, that’s definitely a God thing.”
As youth pastor for the past five years, Noel’s life is centered around the kids. “Somedays, I’m at the school because I volunteer with the baseball team and EPYB. It’s all about being involved in their lives not just at church but everywhere. The struggles that they go through have gotten so bad recently. I just want to be an example.”
When not volunteering at school, Noel leads youth services on Sundays and on Wednesday evenings. “A lot of times on Sunday morning, we have Sunday School that goes into the lesson from Brother Daniel Holsomback,” he described. “A lot of it is just scripture based. We’ve been going chronologically through the scriptures, and, right now, we’re looking at Paul’s letters specifically 1 Corinthians.”
“From that, we’re able to expand to Sunday night with the youth where I’m trying to focus on making our faith our own,” he continued. “It isn’t just that we’ve always been taught this way but more of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our savior.”
According to Noel, Wednesday evening services are more light and laid back. “We definitely open up with a prayer and worship. There’s a little food involved because it’s Southern Baptists, and then we go into a lesson. I try to keep things more discussion based instead of just cramming it down their throats.”
At a recent Wednesday service, Noel shattered glass that symbolized our sin and, as he said, “giving it to God.”
During his time in Pine Prairie, Noel has also fallen in love and gotten involved with the Community Christmas. “One of the big things I love about this town is how we get involved with one another,” he said. “It’s not just tolerating our neighbors, but it’s more of a family atmosphere. We’re able to join with all the other churches, and last year I was the one who played Jesus on the cross.”
Sitting on his back desk in his office are the wig and the crown of thorns that Noel wore on the cross for last year’s Community Christmas. These props also remind the youth pastor of Christ’s own Paschal Mystery.
“It’s amazing to think that someone would love me that much,” Noel said. “The way I look at it is, it wasn’t the Jews, or the Romans, or this group of people who put Jesus on the cross. It was me because of my sins that he died. I think it’s extremely personal, and there’s not enough that I could do to ever pay Him back except giving Him my heart and my life and being the example that I know He’s called me to be. I’m far from perfect, but I pray for the strength to carry on and to impact the lives of the youth.”
“Without the Resurrection, He would just be another man,” Noel continued. “The fact that Christ rose again three days later proved that He is God. Even better, I love the Ascension because He goes up to Heaven. He promises that He will come back for His followers and that He is preparing a place for us to be able to be with Him again. He broke sin and broke death to give us hope, and that is one reason I can continue going on.”
Now that his time in Pine Prairie is drawing to a close, Noel wants to leave a legacy on the youth of First Baptist Church. As he said, “I want a legacy kind of thing that these kids were impacted, not just because of me but, because of the word of God. I’ve done some really fun stuff, but if all they remember is me, then I didn’t do my job.”
Noel concluded by describing his time here as a blessing. He said that he would not change anything about “coming down to a town that I never heard of before and staying for boudin and cracklins. I love it completely. A ‘blessing’ is the best word I could think of because I am unworthy.”